‘Before realizing our hopes, it may be very costly for
Haiti’

By Alva James-Johnson, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 3
January 2004

Former Haitian President Leslie Manigao is still passionate about his
country. It doesn’t matter that he was ousted from office in
1988, four months into his term, or that 16 years later Haiti is still
in political chaos.

At 73, Manigat sits at the edge of his seat as he dissects the
intricacies of Haitian politics. His voice gradually crescendos, and
his hand waves like a wand as he accents every significant point. His
hair graying, he still clings to the belief that Haiti can be a great
nation under the right conditions. But the blood that has been shed in
recent weeks suggests the country will have to pay a high price for
democracy.

Before realizing our hopes, it may be very costly for Haiti, he
said. We have come to the point now, where people are on the verge
of explosion.

Manigat, a resident of Port-au-Prince, made his comments earlier this
week, sitting in a modest Miami Gardens home, where he and his wife,
Mirlande, are staying with friends. He arrived in South Florida two
weeks ago for local speaking engagements for Haiti’s
bicentennial.

Today he will deliver a speech titled, Haiti in the Twenty-First
Century: Vision for the Future, 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the
African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk
Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. He will also hold a signing for his latest
book in a three-volume series written in French that analyzes
Haiti’s 200-year history.

Manigat, a political science scholar educated in France, is regarded
by many Haitian intellectuals as one of the country’s most
educated and progressive presidents. But he has failed to capture the
popular support of the masses, most of whom live in poverty and
identify more with movements like the one that led to the election of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The leader of an opposition party that has been demonstrating against
the Aristide regime, Manigat blames his disconnection with the people
on the country’s high poverty rate and lack of political
education among the voters.

In such a context, it’s possible to manipulate people, to
inflame them more than the people trying to speak reason and political
persuasion, he said. They’re more emotionally taken by
people who speak radically and [as demagogues]. That’s the
problem I had from the beginning, and I’m trying to work on
that.

Prior to his 1988 election, Manigat spent 23 years in exile fighting
the government of Francois Papa Doc Duvalier. He worked at
universities in Washington, the West Indies and Caracas, Venezuela.

1987 election turmoil

In 1979, he and other exiles in Caracas formed a political party,
called the Rally of the National Progressive Democrats, in response to
the plight of boat refugees who were desperately fleeing the country.

We wanted to change the life of the people through a program of
social justice that would address poverty, he said.

It wasn’t until 1986, after the downfall of Jean Claude Baby
Doc Duvalier, that Manigat returned to the country. A year later,
voters approved a constitution calling for civilian-led presidential
and National Assembly elections. In November 1987, an election was
aborted when 34 voters were killed at the polls and ballots were
confiscated. In February of the next year, another election was held
and most voters stayed away from the polls. But Manigat was elected
with the backing of the military.

It is the truth that I was elected in a minority context, because
many parties had decided to boycott the elections, he said. But
the country was yearning for change, he said, and he thought he could
move it toward democratization and modernization. He said he took a
calculated risk by accepting the backing of military leaders, with the
hopes of putting an end to the military’s unchecked political
power once he was in control.

One of the main problems of the country from the very beginning is
the army, he said. It’s the army that won national
independence through a war of liberation. From 1804 to the American
occupation in 1915, there was only one civilian in power. All others
were generals.

But Manigat’s efforts didn’t sit well with military
leaders. Four months after his election, he was spending a Sunday
afternoon in the presidential residence when he got word that troops
had stormed the National Palace. By midnight, he and 20 other people
were still in the presidential residence when the military arrived
with guns and tanks and began shooting at the building.

We have always been a non-violent party and non-violent government,
so we erected a white flag at the top of the building to say we are
not engaged in armed resistance against the army, he said.

Barred from office

A military general told them to come out with their hands in the
air. If we had resisted one shot, we would have been wiped out,
he said. We were aligned along the wall, as if they were going to
kill us.

But their lives were spared, and the military took them directly to
the national airport, where they were flown to the Dominican
Republic. Before boarding the plane, Manigat turned to the television
cameras and said: Good luck to my country.

After being welcomed by the Dominican government and staying in a
hotel, he left three days later for Europe, where he stayed until
August, when he was recruited to be a guest scholar at the Woodrow
Wilson International Institute for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Later,
he lived in Europe and taught at Sorbonne University of Paris and the
Institute of International Relations in Geneva.

In 1990, he and his wife returned to Port-au-Prince to allow Manigat
to run for president. But members of the country’s electoral
council refused to allow him in the election because he had already
been president once.

Aristide was elected in December 1990 and the voters were fooled to
think that social revenge would fix the country’s problems,
Manigat said.

Now that people’s illusions have been shattered, his party has
been promoting the slogan: To prepare and succeed post
Aristide.

He said many people have asked him to run for office in the next
presidential election, and he will do it if the conditions are right.

I’m not a fanatic for power, but if I’m given the
chance to save my country, I’m ready, he said. The
country needs people who are completely honest, dedicated, caring for
the suffering majority and open to the world. If we cannot [develop
the means] to start something in that direction, for me it’s not
worth it.